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Coronet of the Triumvirate
The following are notes taken from a scribe of the Order of Draconis. The Scribe's notes are the only to survive a fire in a 3rd Age Dominion village, after the Inquisition purged the local werewolf population. Remember, due to the provenance of the source, the scribe may be an unreliable narrator. The Battle for the Crown In the year 1653AE, Khalivar and the Triumvirate of Corynth went to war for the last time. The Khalivarians entreated their Goddess, Khali, for aid in conquest over the entire Northern continent in her name; first they would claim everything West of the Steppe, and once they had established their stranglehold of civilisation there, they would spread further. Corynth, Kendarr and Dorgeshkun, collectively known as the Triumvirate, knew of these plans, and in turn entreated their Gods for aid. The battles were fought in the Khalivarian Straights, on Lake Familia, along the land covering the walls of Khalivar and even encroaching into the Steppe, with the entire conflict lasting 6 years. The first important casualty came with the death of the Great King Logan Paragon during the First Battle of Seathe's Shore, 1653AE. Both sides up until that point had been comprised of entirely mortal forces, but the tide of the battle changed when Godking Gabrúl and his Goddess, Khali, solidified their bond with the demons of Hell. Logan was taken down in a battle between his elite guard and two Pit Fiends, as his younger brother Jari watched from the side-lines, being dragged away by the last survivors. Overcome with grief, Jari fled the war to roam the land with a group of outcasts, aiming to find some way of ending the Khalivar-Triumvirate conflict for good, disguising himself while he travelled with the Orc, Tavar, the Dwarf, Kazarik, and the Minotaur, Asterius. Inspired with a new-found urge to gain revenge against Khalivar for killing their King and his younger brother, or so they thought, the Corynthian people rallied behind Baron Cahn and his sons Oliver and Oscar, who declared Corynth a republic and brought it to war. They revealed the Corynthian aristocracy's vampiric population, including the Baron himself. However, instead of being reviled for their situation, the Corynthian vampires were celebrated; they created a vanguard of their own forces in order to attack Khalivar in the night, priding themselves on their insurgency abilities. Oliver and Oscar, non-vampires of the Cahn household, took up their blades once more as Paladins of the Triumvirate and led the armies of Man, Halfling and Dwarf into battle, never failing to fight on the front line. Queen Eliah of Kendarr readied her fleets, and Kendarr went into full naval production, invading Khalivar from the north and frequently encountering the Khalivarian ships in the straights. Eliah encouraged a policy of ships manned with summoners, in order to combat the Khalivarian strategy of luring Kraken and Aboleth into the paths of the ships attempting to attack them. All ships, merchant, military or pirate, agreed to fight for the Triumvirate against the invading Khalivarian horde, and the ocean was continuously in a state of turmoil. Meanwhile, at the turn of the year 1654AE, Jari and his band were scouring the distant lands for the Ka'Kari, in order to bring the artefacts to the battlefront and turn the tides of the conflict. Kazarik claimed the Ruby Ka'Kari, from deep within the bowels of Mount Stormthroat, awakening a slumbering dragon who belonged to the line of Melphegor, which proceeded to join the fight against Khalivar not out of moral duty, but because the Khalivarians had gained the power of the Draconic God, Bolshé, whom his family had long had feud with. By 1655AE, Tavar had claimed the Emerald Ka'Kari, and used its ability to raise the trees of Darkwood as an Ent army, sending them to fight alongside the Triumvirate. Morgrim of Doomhelm, King of Dorgeshkun, was killed in battle in 1655AE. The Khalivarians had re-routed eastwards, heading into the Steppe and bringing the Canim warlords with them. He broke out of his city with a force of 10,000 Dwarves behind him, but the Canim were too strong for them alongside the Khalivarian Vurdmeisters, and the forces isolated Morgrim from his men. In his dying words, he cursed all the Gods in the world for leaving his side in his time of need, but vilified his son, Kazarik, for being a coward and abandoning the country and his brothers for a second time. He went down wrestling the jaws of a gigantic demon-possessed Canim warlord, spitting curses until he no longer had breath left. Because of this failure, the Eastern border of the Triumvirate fell, and Khalivar pushed its border as far as Dorgeshkun and claimed a large portion of the Steppe. This prompted Ymmuri, Trost and Elysium to enter the war, afraid for their own safety, banding with Corynth and Dorgeshkun, but refusing to aid Kendarr due to long held grievances between the nations. The Kendarrian armies, however, were in dire trouble, as the Godking had himself raised a Ferali, a long feared beast made from corpses, practically unstoppable, which consumed everything it came across. It destroyed the three war camps on the Khalivarian-Kendarrian border, before making its way south, alone, conquering every army that tried to impede its movement. The mindless beast was controlled by the Godking himself, and therefore he could see everything it came across, scouting the land he soon hoped would be his. Should anyone sever a limb from the beast, it would grow back another, the surge of energy regenerating it completely. Every pore on the Ferali's skin was a tiny, fanged mouth, so skin-to-skin contact caused any victims to be devoured. Eventually the beast was slain by a Halfling hunter, by the name of Chelsea Trent, who stayed constantly out of reach of it, slashing the blood-vessels on its skin with poisoned knives but never cutting deep enough to trigger its regeneration. By this point, Asterius had found the Sapphire Ka'Kari, nestled in the depths of the catacombs below Doomhelm, miles and miles below the city's lowest civilised point. With his now heightened intelligence, he and the other three managed to find their way through the underground, fighting their way down and past the darkness into the depths of Hell itself. By this point, Kazarik had heard of the death of his father, having moved through his city in stealth, save for a short trip into the Doomhelm treasury for him to claim his family's Golden Warhammer, more of a symbol of regency than a weapon. On their entry into the first circle of Hell, the group found a wasteland covered in pillars of ash. Upon closer inspection, each pillar was revealed to be in the shape of a person, whether Elf, Dwarf, Human, Canim or otherwise. These wastes stretched on as far as the eye could see, but Asterius noted that they were, in fact, growing. Some exploration of a local alabaster temple revealed that the pillars where the trapped souls of all who had died at the hands of a demon. They took a mild excursion from their journey to free as many as they could, finding Jari's brother Logan and Kazarik's father amongst the mix. The Dwarf, now forgiven for his perceived cowardice, took a new view on life, pledging to help end the war and lead his people to peace, or at least, safety. The group's journey took them to three aristocratic houses of Hell; Astaroth's, Belial's and Asmodeus', who each time they pledged allegiance to in order to remove their influence over the Khalivarian armies. On the surface, the tides of war began to turn as the Khalivarian armies thinned, no longer supported by the devils provided by Hell. The Cahn brothers began their push East, driving the Vurdmeisters and the Canim back to the Dorgeshkun border, while the Ymmuri stalkers of the south pushed through the Steppe to meet them, pincer-ing the enemy and forcing their armies all the way back to the wall. Once the armies were pushed back, a stalemate began. It took the next two years for Prince and his friends to escape Hell, surfacing in the Fae-Lands of the far East in the Autumn of 1657AE. They were immediately captured by the King of Catechism, Uther Pendragon. He kept them beneath his palace for months, questioning why they were within his boundaries, unwilling to trust that they weren't spies from the West, and less willing when they told him the truth; that they were. His questioning, however, revealed the location of the Onyx Ka'Kari to Jari; it was kept buried with Uther's first Queen, Marianna, in her tomb to the north. After learning this, Kazarik used the powers of the Ruby Ka'Kari to melt the bars of their prison, jail-breaking them so they could make their sprint to the north, in order ransack the tomb to find the Onyx Ka'Kari. The stalemate in the West was ending, and Cahn's forces, alongside Eliah's navy, were pushing north, having broken the Wall of Khalivar, just north of the White Wastes, until the Vurdmeisters and Khalivarians were on the other side of the Impassible Chasm, which surrounded the 150 miles around the Godking's temple. Thus began the two year siege of the Godking. Ymmuri, Trost and Elysium pulled out of the conflict at this point, believing the Triumvirate had gone too far ransacking the wastes and towns of Khalivar. The siege caused the Godking Gabrúl to utilise his people as a resource, with all those who weren't gifted with the Vir being sacrificed in order to create 20 gargantuan Ferali, which patrolled the cavern and began the most violent war of attrition the world had ever seen. The Godking, however, refused to devote his time to controlling them, and therefore the colossal undead beasts roamed wild and free. Jari claimed the Onyx Ka'Kari, its abilities granting him the strengths of an elite assassin, bolstering the tactics he'd already learned. He and the other three of his group began their trek west, outrunning Pendragon's armies and entering the Steppe. They battled their way slowly through the wild Linnorms that lived there, their journey taking 18 months in total, until they reached God's Ascendancy in 1659AE. The tower was never built, simply a pinnacle that was always a feature of the planet's landscape, and it's needle-like spire served as a bridge between the mortal world and the realm of the Gods. Tavar, Kazarik and Asterius began their ascent, waving goodbye to Jari, who intended to make his way to the Godking's palace and end the war himself, showing his country he was alive and that he could lead them to victory. The three, now calling themselves the Ka'Karifers of the Coronet as a joke between themselves about the jewels they bore. It was a thirty mile climb to the pinnacle of the Ascendancy, with challenges and dictates designed by the Gods along the way. They lamented together about how unlikely it was that an Orc, a Dwarf, and a Minotaur would be such fast brothers, with Kazarik taking the opportunity to promise the two that as King of Dorgeshkun, he would personally see the end to the conflicts between their people. Bonded and relaxed, the two continued their journey into the heavens. Jari arrived at the Vir bridge, by the Impassable Chasm, to the sight of Corynth's dwindling forces. At first there was silence, with many believing him to be a trick, until Oliver Cahn verified his identity. Much rejoicing was had that the man was alive, and his explanation of events helped solidify the morale built up behind him. The Ent armies Tavar had sent had been the most stalwart force of the military, and the rest of the Triumvirate's armies valued their contributions. Many believed had it not been for this, the tide of battle would never had turned; likewise, with the banishment of the devils and the aid of Melphegor. Jari was crowned King Paragon IV, a short event which culminated in the elite vanguard, the Cahn brothers and Jari setting off around the perimeter to hunt down the remaining of the 20 Ferali guarding the Godking's temple. The business took them a month in total. By the time Jari's forces had killed the last Ferali, the Coronet were nearing the mouth of the Ascendancy, climbing out into the Heavens battered and bruised. Unimpeded, they made their way to the central Pantheon, aiming to confront Khali. Their arrival was met with anger; the Gods did not welcome the mortals treading on their realm, and many saw to make their life difficult for them. A few days after their arrival, they had climbed to the Pantheon's platform above the mouth of the Ascendancy, a thirty mile fall below them. Khali waited for the three, grinning and assured of her own power, but alongside her stood Jale; the perceived God of the Triumvirate. The two Gods thanked them for their delivery of the three Ka'Kari they'd brought; they'd always intended to use the artefacts' power to fuel a ritual in which they would sink the mortal plane back into the ether. Khali's reasoning was simple, it was her devotion to chaos that encouraged her to pursue the aim, but Jale relented that he had grown tired of mortal influences years ago, and wished to merge the world's back into their previous perfect state, mortals and gods be damned. Three took on two, and Asterius used his wizardry to bolster the strengths of Kazarik as he attacked Jale, whilst Tavar faced off against Khali alone. The Orcish Druid had become a master of both hand to hand combat and spellwork, and attempted to duel Khali as an equal. She bleached the battlefield in her Vir and whipped Tavar like a dog, but the powerful Orc was just driven into a rage, clawing his way to the Goddess and tearing the vines from her skin, one by one. With the Vir severed, every Vurdmeister lost their magical ability, as the pool of the Vir's taint gathered in the next powerful claim to it below Khali; Godking Gabrúl. Jari used the momentary lapse in Khalivarian power to cross the Chasm, Cahn brothers in tow. Whilst the brothers took on the Vir-Less Vurdmeisters, still adept at hand to hand combat, Jari made his way to the Godking's throne room to challenge him alone. At this point, the Draconic God, Bolshe, and the God of Torture and Pain, Nemesis, had joined in the battle atop God's Ascendancy, fighting Kazarik and Asterius away from Jale, who had begun to get the better of him. The two fought back to back, Kazarik making attempts at killing blows with his Golden Warhammer and Asterius covering them with counters and warding for whatever the three Gods could throw at them. Knowing it was a threat to his domain, Damu, the God of Nature, strode into the fray of battle in order to support the two whilst Tavar and Khali traded blows on the edge of the platform. Jale, confident in his position in the fight whilst his allies dealt with the threats, set about beginning the ritual, using the Ka'Kari that were in proximity as his power source. Soon, nearly every God of the Pantheon had picked a side in the battle, many falling quickly, each either trying to stop or support Jale in his purge. Only Terce and Kakaysia, Goddesses of Law and Sunlight respectively, and Sorin, God of the Fae, stayed away from the fight. Jari confronted Gabrúl in the throne room, promising if he gave in now he would have a quick death. The man stood eight feet tall, skin swelling with the force of the Vir that writhed beneath it; the dictator now controlled all Vir in existence, save for the little Khali had left, and it fell from him like a cloak, his power literally leaking into the room, cracking the mortar and pillars that held the palace together. Jari used the crumbling palace to his benefit, hiding in the shadows surrounding the fallen architecture to catch the Godking off guard frequently, using the powers of the Onyx Ka'Kari to tread lighter than air. Remembering the tactics of Chelsea Trent that he'd been told of by his army, he dipped his knives in poisons, flaying the man slowly until the fight culminated on the spire of the Godking's palace in full view of his army. Cursing Gabrúl with the vengeance of Logan on his lips, Jari slit the weakened Godking's throat and ended the conflict between Khalivar and the Triumvirate. With Jale's ether ritual nearing completion at the top of the Ascendancy, the Coronet's situation looked bleak. Many of the Gods had perished, and Kazarik and Asterius stood together, their resources waning. Tavar, unable to kill Khali, and aware of the inevitability of the end, reached out and grabbed her by the throat, letting her nails and Vir sink into his skin while he held her. With the last of his strength, he waved goodbye to the other members of the Coronet, and flung himself from the platform, plummeting the 30 miles down the tower, holding the Chaos Goddess so she could no longer escape. The action took the Emerald Ka'Kari away from Jale's ritual, and it's power was lost. The energy the God had poured into it reversed, disintegrating him instead of the plane around him, and the remaining members of the Coronet, inspired by the loss of their ally, dropped their defensive tactics and used the rest of their strength to commit deicide themselves, killing Nemesis and Bolshe whilst Damu perished in the assistance. The battle was done; the Pantheon empty, save for Terce, Sorin and Kakaysia, who allowed the two grieving warriors to leave, shocked at the carnage around them and mourning themselves. And thus, in the year 1659AE, Jari Paragon and Kazarik of Doomhelm returned to their people as Kings. Asterius joined the court of Kazarik, as his personal wizard, extending the catacombs below Doomhelm Eastwards with his power, sealing the relations between the Faelands and the West as friendly, opening up a new trade route that both could prosper from. This era, known as The Peace, lasted two years. In 1661AE, the scattered Churches and Temples across the lands began to unite. Kakaysia refused to force people into devoting her, and Sorin only cared for the Fae; instead, Terce's love gained influence throughout the lands. Far and wide, though mostly through humanity, the Goddess began to be worshipped with near fanaticism, and once more conflict began to break out between her followers and those who were opposed to the Reformation of Light; the name which the religion began to be known by. The Goddess quickly grew tired of conflict amongst mortals, having seen it end in the deaths of nearly all of her kind, the Gods now practically an extinct race, so she provided a covenant for the world to hear: Join or Die. King Jari flat out refused to bow down to another Goddess he saw as overzealous, and spread the word throughout the lands of the Triumvirate and the Kendarrian's newly emancipated lands in the north, and likewise, Kazarik of Doomhelm, issued a decree to his followers below ground not to succumb to the Goddess' demands, with any of her worshippers within the nation being flung to the surface and allowed to fend for themselves against wild bands of Goblins. In the East, beyond the Steppe, the Canim of Canis revelled, few of their number even considering the demands, and the Lizard races of Ryuugu barely noticed even a disturbance. Sorin extended his protection of the Faelands whilst the rulers of these nations, Uther, Gobe, Titania and Gloriana, practiced open defiance, encouraging their masses to invest massive resources into magical experimentation, flaunting their military might. Kakaysia's love extended over the South East in the form of sunlight, and she shielded her Tengu and Plantlike races from the wrath of the vengeful Goddess of Law. The Elves of Lyrricania, Ashley and Condesce banded together in their own Triumvirate, the Order of the Shoreline, and vowed that no worshipper of the north would land on their beaches, investing heavily in their navy and refusing to trade with any but those denizens already a member of the Southern continent. Dwarrowland South of here, home to the Jungle Dwarves, were too chaotic for the Reformation of Light to gain much hold, and thus, the South held its siege. Elysium were the first to break into civil war in 1662AE, with the Reformation of Light assassinating many of the Rajah’s in power and claiming the Djinn they had built their thrones atop, each province of the nation falling to the dogmatic institution one by one. The Reformation itself may not have been so strong alone, but Terce provided them with mighty Paladins, insidious Inquisitors and even angels in order to move the Reformation from a simple campaign into a full scale war. Those that fell to Terce were raised as corpses, mindless but controlled, in order to bolster the armies of Light. Whilst Terce's magic only worked to raise these bodies once, the alchemists of the Reformation, those who had served the public and the Rajahs before the take over, worked tirelessly until they had perfected the art of animation, modelling their craft on what the Elysians called the “Pey” or “Alakai”, ghouls from the underworld that roamed old battlegrounds and scenes of violence to feast on the guilty amongst the living. News of this insurgency reached Jari by way of an angelic messenger. An entity by the name of Promakos brought him the word in front of his high court, the message re-iterated; Join or Die. The King raised his sword to fight the intruder off, but was countered by the Cahn brothers, avid followers of the Goddess of Law. With them and the following of loyalists they had gained in the Khalivarian War, Jari was run from his palace and their father, the Baron Augustus Cahn instated as Lord Protector of the Triumvirate and Arbiter of Light. He instituted a policy of No Contest, ordering the ransacking of all Monasteries, Temples and Churches of those he decreed false Gods, before seeking to extend his influence westwards. By the beginning of 1663AE, the Reformation had control of Elysium, Trost and Corynth, with Kendarr and Ymmuri struggling to hold their borders and combat the insurgency within their civilisation at the same time. Having seen this occurring, the Triumvirate of the Shoreline formed a full defensive blockade around their coast to the North, aided by the ships of the Tengu of Sierra, the two races agreeing (with the support of all else within the lands between them) to instate a system of Military Rule within their lands. While the Elves had lost their Gods in the Battle of the Spire, they held a deep respect for Kakaysia and her policy of no conquest, and thus an agreement that would normally be tentative held fast. The shamed Jari, having been turned away from the Elven blockade in his attempt to seek asylum, deigned to re-attempt the feat of daring his brothers in the Coronet had performed years ago, demanding his ship be sailed to the South coast of the Steppe, through the Archipelago of Jallianburg and up to the contested bay waters of Elysium. However, his transgressions against Uther in the past had not been forgotten, and the great King of the Fae, having placed security detail amongst the sailors in his crew, knew where to wait for his landing. The fallen monarch was back- stabbed in the Tower of Greed as he attempted to recuperate, and King Uther came to claim the Onyx Ka'Kari for himself. Baron Cahn, now Arbiter Augustus, furthered his aristocracy throughout Corynth, granting each Lord and Lady power over their province, deferring only to the Church. The Corynthian vampiric lineage swore allegiance to Terce and the Reformation of Light, and in return Terce offered her a greater protection against Kakaysia's sunlight, providing the alchemists in Corynth with knowledge enough to delay the harmful effects with creams and proper embalming. Once the Arbiter had crushed Jari's loyalists and his aristocracy consolidated power in Corynth, they set their eyes westwards, beginning their conquest of the Kendarrian border. Queen Eliah, immediately aware of what happened to Jari, abdicated within 7 days of the attack, but her people were not so quick to abandon their nation. As Eliah fled to Dorgeshkun via the Wastes of Khalivar, the Kendarr Nationalist Party began their insurgency, declaring themselves the true government of the land and vying with the Reformation for power. The KNP declared a government of Kendarr, the Dail, in the northern port of Derry whilst the Corynthian forces pushed their border west to Treatise, meeting the Reformation insurgency along the way. Likewise, the Corynthian army pushed South East, meeting the Elysium army in the middle of Ymmuri and annexing the entire region. The Reformation now controlled 20% of the World's borders. Dorgeshkun held. Kazarik forgave the blight of Uther's revenge against Jari, and the two continued to trade below the surface of Doomhelm in their cross-continental catacombs. The Fae had not been scared of Terce's domination of the West, until Sorin personally instructed them to begin planning their defence or their escape; he made no short work of helping them understand the threat she posed to their way of life. Terce, aware of his opposition to her, lured him to duel her in the Deific battlegrounds of the Steppe, his final action being a ward bolstered around the Fae perimeter to protect them for the next few years whilst the Fae hatched an escape plan. Sorin had given them the scholastic materials for a race-wide dimension door, and told them to “look to the stars”. Gobe's astronomers started to survey planets in the nearby vicinity whilst the engineers amongst their kind worked on constructing the ritual, trading with Doomhelm for the components they'd need. Kazarik was offered the chance to bring his people with them, but rightly assumed that no Dwarf would wish to become a coward rather than stand and fight the onslaught of the Reformation and its angels. For the brief time the sieges in Kendarr and Dorgeshkun held, the Triumvirate of the Shoreline had begun to turn an eye on the human population living amongst them, for humans themselves had proven themselves to be untrustworthy in the eyes of the Elves as far they could see in the north. In 1664AE, a mass expulsion of the Condescian humans was decreed by the Elven Queen Mar-Medea. Throughout the next two years, the Elven government systematically forced the human population in their lands to leave for the shorelines of the northern continent, allowed only to keep the possessions they could carry; the rest of their property was impounded and claimed for the state. Some humans managed to escape the expulsion, feeling South East to Sierra, where the Tengu were much kinder to them, but the vast majority landed upon the shores of the Reformative Empire and were immediately imprisoned. Around 13% of these arrests ended in public execution. In 1665AE, work was being made in the Fae-Lands to complete the ritual the late God Sorin had bequeathed to his people. The wards on the borderlands of the Fae were failing, and Terce's angels pounded frequently on their magical stronghold in an attempt to weaken them. To do so, however, the armies had to pass through Ryuugu and Canis, the two countries now banded as a fraternity, with both the Canim and the Kobolds worshipping the Dragons as true rulers. They viewed Terce's affront on the world as an unforgivable sin. Their leaders, Warchanter Worgen and Skeeth the Ice Forged respectively, created war bands from their people, and enlisting the aid of the Minotaurs of the Steppe, began to ransack the old hidden citadels of the dragons of the 1st age, stealing all the knowledge they could in order to aid themselves in their combat of Terce's forces. Worgen's Wolves embedded themselves in the passes and canyons of the Eastern Steppe, waited to ambush any approaching forces whilst the armies of Skeeth took to the skies with the magical knowledge they had found granting them arcane force where physical could not be found. Collectively, the two groups stalled long enough to buy Uther's lands some time. The Kendarrian Empire fell in 1666AE, after a full-scale affront from land, air and sea. Many of the KNP rebels who refused to go down were thrown into the caverns below old Khalivar in order to become food for the trolls or discarded undead Krull that lay there in the depths. The Cahn brothers marched ahead an army of Reformists and Undead, piercing the border and dominating anybody who resisted, fanning their forces out periodically to consolidate their hold of the lands. Terce rewarded them for their royalty, ascending Oscar and Oliver as Archangels in her ranks; the two took the names Michael and Lucifer, or “Warrior of God” and “Light of God” respectively. Upon his ascension, Oliver, now Lucifer, did all he could to learn about history, and the weaknesses of the mortals so that he might best exploit them for the love of Terce, but in doing so grew to learn an objective stand point on the teachings she gave and the grave atrocities that had been committed in her name. Alarmed, Lucifer began to realise his mistakes in supporting a Goddess who was now becoming no better than Khali, and fled the ranks of Heaven to Hell, below, aiming to mimic the Ka'Karifers of the Coronet in their pragmatism and entreating the demons there for aid. Astaroth, Asmodeus and Be'Lial, however, decided that the price for their helping Lucifer would be the debt of the Ka'Karifers, and the allegiance the three had pledged was passed over to the fallen angel. With the fall of Kendarr, the world's eyes turned on Dorgeshkun, beset on all borders save the East. Kazarik and Asterius lead the Dwarven army of Doomhelm onto the surface, mobilising the non- combatants to flee into the catacombs below and wait for their valiant return, or wait for whatever Terce had planned for them. Raising his Golden Warhammer to the sky, but lowering his crown to the ground, Kazarik greeted his people as equals, pledging to die amongst them should they fail in this last stand. Dwarves, Orcs and Minotaurs all rode under the banner of Dorgeshkun for the first time, ironically, peace amongst them. Aware that her forces would be dealing with two powerful Ka'Karifers, responsible for the deaths of many Gods, Terce took to the battlefield herself in order to support her troops, taking a six-winged form not unlike her angels, raising the Scythe she'd looted from Tavar's corpse to Kazarik as a token of respect before the two ideals clashed. Raising through the catacombs of Doomhelm to the surface, Lucifer entered the fray, facing off against his brother and standing at Kazarik's side. As the armies clashed, the five duelled; Michael and Terce on one side, Kazarik and Asterius the other, confused as to Lucifer's intentions and thus cautious in their every action. The two brothers confronted each other, Lucifer distracting Michael so that the two living Ka'Karifers could face Terce together. Mimicking the tactic they had adopted atop God's Ascendancy, Asterius provided magical protection while Kazarik flung his weight at every free opportunity, but Terce had held back in the fight, learning every manoeuvre the two could throw at her. Under one particularly overzealous strike, Kazarik overstretched his balance, and Terce used the opening to pin Asterius to the cliff-face with the tip of her scythe. The Minotaur wasn't dead, but was heavily injured, hardly able to raise his head, and Kazarik lay exposed to the Goddess' onslaught. Overcome with anger, the Barbarian King entered a rage so powerful that his skin began to smoke with the energy the Ka'Kari let off. A swing with the Golden Warhammer cracked Terce across the temple, knocking her concentration, while Lucifer replaced Asterius' skill-set, providing Infernal support strong enough to ignite the Dwarf into flame. Unarmed, with his army destroyed around him, Kazarik began to beat the crouched Goddess, fists encased in the Ruby of the Ka'Kari, wreathed in flames. Michael took the opportunity to banish Lucifer, banishing him to Hell until Michael's power subsided, whilst Kazarik's rage grew to engulf he and the Goddess both, using the Ka'Kari as a vessel to entrap Terce, but succumbing to the flames in exhaustion. And so, the Dwarf King burned, and the Goddess of Law was lost, with only Michael and the Arbiter Augustus I being the only witnesses. Together, they agreed to keep the fall of Terce secret, Augustus picking up the Ruby Ka'Kari for himself, which was now charged with Terce's power, the Goddess trapped within the artefact. Asterius, waking to see the fall of his friend, rose to his feet and sprinted into the depths of Doomhelm, trying to outrun both the news of Dorgeshkun's failure and Michael, who gave chase through the cave systems. The chase lasted two months, with Asterius pushing past his pain barrier and bleeding profusely the entire time, barely holding himself together as he forewent sleep in order to tell Uther that it wasn't hopeless and that Terce was dead. His arrival in the Sorinholme was met with silence, as the lands were deserted; the Fae had heard the news of Kazarik's defeat, and escaped to a distant planet elsewhere in the solar system in order to make a new life for themselves. Weak from his journey, and hopeless, Asterius fell to his knees while Michael approached from behind, beheading the Minotaur and leaving his body as it was, to rot in the lost lands of the East, never to be seen by another soul. Augustus knew his limits; the South was unattainable to him without Terce's aid, so instead he consolidated the lands he owned, segregating the races of Man, Halfling and Dwarf into their own lands. Humans, being favoured by Augustus for their devotion, were given the fertile lands of the Triumvirate, the three nations becoming one, known as Dominion. The Dwarves and the Halflings had provided too harsh a resistance for Augustus to consider them worthy of his time; the Halflings were left encamped in the snow-drifts of old Khalivar, now called New Kendarr, many freezing in the exposure, whilst the hardy Dwarves, used to the darkness of the underground were moved to the temperate climate of Ymmuri, Trost and Elysium where the soils were hard, the sun harsh and the desert encroaching – wherever water lay it was swampland or ocean, and the new land was renamed Avarice, as a symbol the punishment the Dwarves were to experience for their transgressions. Comfortable with his power, the lie he kept about Terce's whereabouts and the stability of the Archangels that Terce left behind to rule in her stead, Augustus declared the Second Age of Man to be over, and that the new year would be known as the 1st year of Terce's Love, or 1TL for shorthand. Thus began the age of Steam and Secrets, the Third Age of Man. The Arbiter raised high walls to surround each of the three nations, refusing to allow any citizen to exit the perimeters. Within the first thirty years of the Third Age, the Inquisition's power under him was rife; any who even talked of the time before the beginning of the Age was considered a traitor to the cause, and alternative histories were taught in schools. The armies hunted down all Orcs, Goblins and other beasts of their ilk within the walls, so that nothing but the most deadly of creatures remained veiled in the night, with the Vampires, Werewolves, Geists and other horrors ruling the night. Children were taught not to believe in monsters, and the public complied, for what evil could a Goddess like Terce allow to live amongst the people? Asterius was demonised, his Minotaurial visage inspiring the folklore of Lucifer, whom the Church taught to be the enemy of the Goddess throughout the lands, warning the people of false prophets and demons amongst them, and regularly witch hunts were carried out for any sorcerers who had done pacts with the devil himself. Any magic that wasn't divine or alchemical was considered demonic, and all casters save for Alchemists, Clerics, Paladins and Inquisitors were hunted down and slain, the only exception being the human druids, who fled to their Darkwood and created a refuge there, untouched and unfound by any who would harm them. Slowly but surely over the first century, all memory of life before within the walls was forgotten; humans forgot of the other races, believing themselves to be the only things around, and magic and monsters were just children's stories, told to the kids to deter them from angering the vampires of the night. Avarice and New Kendarr became slave nations, the two races tirelessly working to supply Dominion with ores, wood and food at their own expense, and the residents of the land knew nothing of the blood and toil that had gone into their ways of life. Technology advanced quickly, and gunpowder was soon discovered, with flintlock rifles becoming a standard issue for all of the Church guards. The Alchemists adopted the south coast of Dominion, becoming Stitchers, ghoulcallers who raided the cemeteries and mortuaries in order to raise the dead in the name of Terce, committing the zombies to be slaves in the mines below old Doomhelm, or a tool to be used by the military to oppress Avarice and New Kendarr. These same alchemists and artificers worked tirelessly to increase the capabilities of Dominion's infrastructure, inventing the rail-roads that criss-crossed the land, connecting the far-flung cities, mines, villages and castles. Augustus soon began to draw attention, having ruled the nation for 80 years, and proceeded to fake his death, masking himself as his own successor, becoming Grand Arbiter Augustus II, a process he repeated every fifty years or so, cycling through the names Augustus, Friedrich, Oscar and Logan. Over time, Lucifer's sanity abated in Hell, and he soon became a vessel for Astaroth and the other two Prince Demons to send their spawn through, with young demons patrolling the surface quietly, only ever possessing humans so that they might cause chaos, often committing acts of arson and similar. These insurgencies were largely ignored by the Inquisition, who tried not to let the public know of any supernatural or magical activity, and instead were met with Hunters, adventurers who left their normal lives in order to escape the clandestine grasp of the Church and combat the horrors of the night; ironically, more Hunters died to the Inquisition for occultism than Demons did. Because so many worshipped a Goddess who couldn't hear them, Ghosts became common throughout the land, unable to ferry themselves to the other side without aid. Hauntings caused many deaths, and still the church denied the existence of supernatural entities. Werewolves stalked the fields and forests throughout the full-moon nights, originally kept as pets by the once again secretly-vampiric aristocracy, though certain escapes created a wild population. Those who lived in the cities were usually hunted by things in the darkness hiding in the corners around the slums, while the rare beasts prowled the heaths and wheat-fields coming for peasants. Coal is the new gold, and only a select few are allowed wealth, whilst the rest of the world watches from a distance, unwilling to do anything to interfere. The Triumvirate of the Shorelines held in name only, no longer having a need to maintain their blockade. The Kobolds of Ryuugu left their homeland, bequeathing it to the Canim who had so long yearned to extend their territory, as they ran riot throughout the Faelands, finally free to stretch their legs. The Canim themselves, no longer enraged under Khali's influence and wizened by the knowledge they had discovered in the Draconic ruins, began to calm down, learning more of peace, beginning to worship the dead God Damu again – combined with the main stayed devotion of the majority of the Southern Continent, Damu started to rekindle by 400TL, his influence spreading but his power still weak. Welcome to the Third Age. The Age of Steam.